


My Intentions Couldn't Have Been Purer

by spaceleviathan



Category: Death Note
Genre: Gen, Identity Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-04
Updated: 2013-03-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 04:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceleviathan/pseuds/spaceleviathan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>L, working for the police after moving to Japan, confiscates a book from a group of school children which states it has the ability to kill someone simply by writing down their name.</p><p>(Tidied and reposted.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Intentions Couldn't Have Been Purer

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Walking In My Shoes" by Depeche Mode.

It was the 28th of January: a date that many police officers had come to know better than their own birthdays.

L Soucek came through to see Chief Yagami at the man's break, offering him a cake he and his little sister had made the night before.

"I'm sorry." He said, as he always did, and the chief nodded thankfully, appreciatively, before L moved to let himself out.

"He would have been eighteen today." The older gentleman spoke into the room, voice dead in his grief, and L wished he could do more to help him than what he'd already done.

"I know." He returned.

"I shouldn't say this," Yagami looked up and met L's eye solidly. He knew he could trust L, so was able to share this with him. "But I'm glad that Kira got the fucker who took him away from me."

L strained a smile, pretended it wasn't real, nodded sharply. "I understand what you mean."

Yagami sighed, deflating under his own admission, guilty that he'd spoken such words at all. He said, "I hope your exams went well," and in it was a dismissal. L was glad to leave, but was even happier he'd come just in time to hear Yagami's praise.

\--

L first met R when they were walking up to the podium at To-Oh, heading to the top to make a speech in front of thousands of students and lecturers and parents.

L was clever enough to get one-hundred percent in the entrance exams, and was therefore more than capable of splitting his attention between the speech he was giving and the boy he was sharing the honour of being Freshmen Representative with.

The boy - named Ryuga Hideki, apparently, but certainly not the same one L's sister and all girls her age gushed about - did not seem to share L's interest in his companion. His address was monotonous and dry, seemingly almost dreary. Something about him looked far too young to be here, but then, as L was older than every student in the room; everyone looked like children to him.

He would have easily gotten into To-Oh had his childhood not been a tumultuous series of misfortunes and personal losses, what with various family tragedies and subsequent movings from place to place. His father hadn't felt it appropriate that L should go to University as soon as they'd relocated to the busy Tokyo, and neither had L. He's signed up, instead, to the police, working in whatever low-end jobs they could rustle up for him in order to support his family who were still mourning the absence of his more sensible mother.

His father, Jarmil, was an artist - a visionary, perhaps, but one that was absent-minded and rarely paid for his work. He'd always loved the hustle-bustle of the Japanese capital; it had been where L's parents had spent their honeymoon. L's mother, Bĕla, had been a business woman whose job kept the family in the Czech Republic, at least until her death five years ago, after which Jarmil had decided to head towards where his dreams and not look back.

L had been studying his first year of law at Masaryk University when Bĕla had died, prompting her heart-broken widower to up and move the family of five to Japan, where he felt he could make his fortune and start afresh. With the inheritance and security Bĕla left behind they were not undergoing hardship enough to starve at night, but Jarmil was not skilled with the accounts. L, as the oldest, had taken over for him. His father had consumed himself with his work and his other children, all of whom were significantly younger than L and still reeling from the loss of their mother. Therefore L took it upon himself to work and teach his siblings Japanese, of which he'd becoming swiftly proficient.

Only now, five years on, had he felt himself comfortable enough with the culture and the language, and happy that his family had settled enough, to go back to University. He'd already been assured a promising career in law enforcement, and working out in the field made L realise how he wanted to make a career in the police, and not in law. He wanted to be a detective.

Jarmil wasn't happy about his sudden change of heart, but he could not do anything to stop him. L was 24, away from his father's influence and aiming to finish the course as soon as possible. The sooner it happened, the quicker he would reach his goal. However, it had not been of any major importance until recently, when events conspired against him and forced him to shove his life in a more forward-facing direction.

He stood now, successful and easily the cleverest person in the room, except, perhaps, the child he shared the podium with. Hideki was a scruffy boy, with unbrushed hair (yet, still somehow neater than L's unfortunate mop) and an inappropriate dress-sense. Whilst L had at least the courtesy to stuff himself inside the suit his father had bought him for the occasion, Hideki was clad in jeans and a white shirt. He was hardly Freshmen Representative material, but his grades, like L's, had been flawless.

L had been the most intelligent child in the Czech Republic, and it was something his parents not let him forget. His father, however, hadn't been happy about the way the government had kept their eye on his genius boy, which had later fed further into his ultimate decision to move away. "We'll get away from those bastards," he'd muttered privately to L when the other children were not in earshot. "It'll be better in Tokyo, you'll see."

It _had_ been better in Tokyo. Without the constant reminders of where Bĕla was not, L had recovered faster than he had ever intended to. In a way, he was glad of it. His father didn't need another child's psyche to worry about on top of the other three.

"Thank you Hideki-san, Soucek-san." A speaker came to them after they had finished with their address, bowing to them politely. He had a little trouble with L's surname, but L ignored it, returning the gesture and descending the stairs back to the audience. Hideki Ryuga followed closely behind.

L was hyper-aware of the presence lingering at his back, curious about the strange boy who was so bright; an anomaly of sort, in that he was obviously Japanese, but with none of the usual social habits. Due to the fact he had kept his senses open wide to observe Hideki without overtly doing so, when the younger leaned over to speak, L didn't react to the sudden breath skimming over his cheek.

"L Soucek," the same emotionless voice which had addressed these thousands of students hissed, and it had L's attention immediately caught. "You are the adopted son of a Czech business woman and an artist, and your family's love for your mother encouraged you all to leave the country when she unfortunately died." He paused, before stating, "My condolences."

Now he _definitely_ had L's interest peaked, and, had they not been in front of an audience of several thousand, Hideki Ryuga would have also had L's fist in his face. No one in Japan knew of L's past, since the news of L's mother's death had only been national. Whoever this child was, he had obviously done his homework about his fellow representative.

It seemed the strange boy picked up on L's anger and moved on quickly, continuing to recount the privacies of L's life. "You joined the police force when you moved here, but recently decided to return to university to restart your law degree. An admirable move, and one which will get you far. However, until you return to the police they will likely suffer, since your insight and quick mind had helped them on countless cases. There are many bad people locked safely away thanks to you."

It was true. L was always adept at puzzles, and an unsolved case was simply another kind of riddle. A sort, it proved, to have positive outcomes, and the answer helped more than just putting away a criminal; it also soothed victims or their families, and let people be put to rest. L had been doing good, and would continue to do so throughout his life. It was his aim, his ultimate goal, and the reason he lived his life.

"I also know," the boy continued, even softer now, leaning closer to L so he could hear the whispered words. "That you have shown interest in the Kira case."

"Who _are_ you?" Because only a select few in the police force - Chief Yagami, for example - knew such small details. The chief had been happy with L's wish to be on the force, but had insisted he focus on his course. When the start of term had passed by, and when things started to settle, then Yagami would get in contact with L again, if they needed any extra hands. From what L knew about the case, they sorely did.

L looked over upon his question to watch how Hideki answered. A face could say so much more than words, and L was going to utilise all the tricks of the trade he'd learnt from working at the police force to figure this boy out.

Hideki just smiled, nothing more than a quirk of lips, in reply. His eyes were blank, his posture hunched and crooked, and no emotion bled through.

"I'm glad you asked, since I was about to introduce myself." He droned with the dreary way he had of speaking. "I am R."

L let that sink into his brain for a second, as a chuckle that was not his own broke through into his mind. L didn't let himself react to the unheard voice, laughter laden with dark amusement, and instead turned himself around, stretching out a hand towards the boy who called himself R.

"It's an honour to meet you, R."

"No, L Soucek, it's an honour to meet the brightest mind in the world."

"Except for you, it seems." L returned, and Hideki shrugged.

"I wouldn't like to lie."

L managed a smile, and ushered Hideki back to the seats which were waiting for them. The laughter, not perceived by R, had not stopped, but L had grown accustomed to ignoring it.

R, if that was who he really was, sat awkwardly, curled up and protective, much in the same way he stood. Everything about R screamed of a defence mechanism, and whether that was because he was a proxy playing at detective, or whether he _was_ in fact the greatest detective in the world, it didn't matter. Even if he was nothing more than a front for the real R to hide behind, showing his face was the best form of defence L had ever seen. Perhaps he should have been expecting something like this.

They didn't speak throughout the rest of the ceremony, which largely consisted of L covertly observing and R gripping his knees to keep his tentative balance. Afterwards, however, was a different story. R walked out with him and engaged in friendly conversation all the way to the parking lot.

He left with a butler and a promise to see L around campus, and L returned it. Then he was left alone with nothing but distant _hyuk_ s and a brand new, delicious puzzle. He didn't know whether R was an idiot for showing his face, or more of a genius than even L had ever given him credit for.

\--

They met again on the university grounds, as R had promised, and the young detective had suggested tennis. That had been after sternly telling L to call him Ryuga. L, who was more than proficient at the game, having played it with his mother for years, won. Not by much, it must be noted, and that was something which would have grated at him had he not come to expect it of the curious young man he was sharing the court with.

With Ryuga, he had to believe that anything went. There had been something in his eyes when he'd taken up the racket, and when he'd hit the first ball back to L's side, that spoke of memories and life and experiences which L could not conceive of. He'd lost his mother tragically, that much was true, after spending almost seven years in an orphanage after his biological parents had been taken from him on top of that, but whatever Ryuga had gone through was something more. He'd learnt more in however many short years he'd lived through than L had seen in all of his. L may be older physically, but Ryuga's mental state was approaching ancient.

One thing that L had been surprised to note was that Ryuga's stature and the way he held himself hadn't worked against him during the game. He'd straightened himself out with a few loud clicks which made L wince sympathetically, and slipped his feet properly into his tennis shoes. He'd made the first serve, and shocked L with his ability. L had returned it, had beaten Ryuga fairly.

"Good game." Ryuga then informed him, leading them both away from the crowds they had gathered and taking them to a secluded part of a café where they hid and spoke of the Kira case. It was there that Ryuga admitted when L had assumed all along.

"I consider you a strong suspect in the investigation."

L had tutted at him, smiled, found him funny. Because he was. Ryuga had no evidence, just a suspicion and a series of apparently vaguely incriminating events which would not stand up in court. They didn't even convince the small group of police officers R had managed to keep a hold of, which L knew without having to ask.

It was a revelation neither of them spent a great deal of time mulling over, and instead Ryuga moved on to his next admittance, and something L had also expected, but not quite so quickly.

"I must implore you to join the taskforce." Ryuga said, slipping some photographs onto the table, alongside a list of names. "But I need to test your inductive reason. Please." He gestured to the paper and L looked over them. He allowed Ryuga the right answer to the list, before using the numbers printed on the back of the photos (in the wrong order, L noted) to dictate his first lie to the great detective R.

"These could be rearranged to make more sense," he admitted. "But it's entirely possible that this is an incomplete message. Perhaps there is a fourth-"

He stopped when he saw R pull another piece of paper from his pocket and pass it to L. His expression seemed a little less blank than usual. "You're correct."

But L hadn't been correct. It had only been intended to keep the detective on his toes; a fib to make Ryuga think more were on their way. Instead, Ryuga revealed that he had intended to trick L, trip him up on the first hurdle. It was lucky that L had decided to further attempt to manipulate the young detective, since otherwise he would have never considered looking past the fact he shouldn't be able to be so sure there wasn't a withheld fourth.

Ryuga then said he'd be more than happy to allow L onto the team, starting as soon as he was able to. L made an act out of seeming surprised.

"Surely you wouldn't just allow a suspect on the official investigation on the basis of a simple test?"

"I already said I wanted you to help. I'm not the only one who would like your invaluable brain on this case."

"I'm a suspect."

"Hardly." Ryuga shrugged, sipping his black tea. "It's just a feeling."

L had nothing to say to that, and was thankfully saved from trying to reply to the madman by the sound of a ringing phone. Ryuga looked around briefly, before realising it was coming from his own pockets.

"Do excuse me," he said, pulling out a top of the range phone and flicking it open. "Yes?" Whatever was being said, Ryuga had no reaction to the news other than standing sharply and producing some money for the tea. "I have to leave. Chief Yagami has had a heart attack."

L's blood ran cold, and surprise filled him. Ryuga seemed resigned at the news, and L stopped his steady slouch away with a hand on the boy's wrist. "Kira?" he asked, but he knew it was not.

"He's not dead." Ryuga admitted. "Which is a good sign. However, Kira has been unpredictable as of late, so perhaps this is a new twist to his game."

No, it wasn't. The power Kira wielded was immense and unstoppable, but it was a machine of death only. If Yagami's name had been in the notebook then Yagami would be deceased.

"Can I accompany you?" He asked, because he had worked with Chief Yagami for many years now. Further, he had a vested interest in knowing what had happened. Ryuga spared him a glance, critical and judging even without so much as a twitch to his expression suggesting such, before nodding.

"We'll take my car."

\--

The hospital was sterile and bright, burning white and too much like a memory L had no wish to relive. His mother had been in surgery for hours before she'd died whilst her family had been stuck in a hospital like any other hospital around the world; cold and unforgiving in its starch, bleached surroundings. L had sat with his second youngest sibling, his sister Markéta, clinging to him like a leech, whilst the second oldest, Odokar, had sat between him and their father, and the youngest, little Tibor, had been weeping into Jarmil's shirt.

This time, however, there was no waiting. They were quickly swept into a hospital room, much against the wishes of Sachiko Yagami. She, understandably, did not want her husband to go through anymore stress - the reason for his heart attack in the first place. However, she knew L, and so accepted his word when he promised they would do nothing to strain his nerves. She'd eyed the wild boy L stood next to, but let them pass.

Yagami had been happy to see L, and then even more overjoyed to learn he'd be joining the investigation.

"We wanted to give you a few weeks, but I suppose Ryuzaki knows best. We're so undermanned."

"I'm Ryuzaki to the taskforce." R explained when L had shot him a funny look. "I would insist you call me that during your time with us."

"I'll retain Ryuga on campus, though." L agreed without prompting, because they'd already made a name for themselves at To-Oh - they'd drawn more attention than they should have in only a few days, and they hadn't even had a single lecture as of yet.

"Thank you." Ryuzaki nodded, and L wondered whether this was his real name. It was unlikely the famous R would so willingly give his name to a suspect, but even if it was, without a surname L could do nothing.

For now, however, he didn't want to. It had been too soon since L had met him to get rid of him, especially now that Yagami had seen the two together. Ryuzaki's defences were being built ever higher, but L was comforted by the fact the detective was still frightfully ignorant.

L was clever and meticulous. Nothing could link these crime to him, except one thing. The same thing that was brilliantly hidden and practically impossible to find. The same thing R would never get his hands on whilst L was alive to protect it. R would have to pry it from L's cold dead body, but it was significantly more likely that their positions would sooner be reversed.

L had his secret weapon, after all, and now all he needed was a name.

\--

L was invited to the taskforce investigation headquarters - or at the Prince Park Tower hotel - not long after the first appearance of the second Kira.

He had answered the grating questions Ryuzaki immediately confronted him with, which likely bumped up the percentage points the detective was holding him to, before L was demanded to write a script for a phony Kira reply.

"I'd appreciate if you left out the part about Kira being free to kill me," Had been Ryuzaki's only critique. "I do not wish to die."

L smiled and joked lightly about it, saying it was a mere jibe, which Ryuzaki took in good stride. "Very well. This is good, Soucek-kun."

"Suspiciously so?" L returned, and Ryuzaki lowered the paper to meet his eye.

"Is it?" He inquired, and L only smiled at him again.

"You tell me."

Later, after Aizawa was sent off with the script to produce the mock Kira response and had returned triumphant, they had a brief period of nothing in which they had to wait. The taskforce occupied themselves with important case-related work. Or, at least, most of them did. Ryuzaki was absently flipping through a teen magazine which Markéta was becoming obsessed with.

"I don't understand that girl," Aizawa growled when he peeked over Ryuzaki's shoulder to the page he was studying very seriously. Splashed across the double-spred was Misa Amane, a name now well known to L thanks to his siblings, and one that he hadn't expected Ryuzaki to take an interest in. "She's an open Kira supporter. It's not good for kids to see."

"No." Ryuzaki mused around his teacup, but he didn't seem to actually be paying attention to the police officer's ranting. Instead, he said: "Kira seems to take an interest in murderers. He's particularly merciless to those who killed with blades, which would explain why he was so quick to cut down the murderer to Misa-Misa's parents, who died from knife-wounds." Then Ryuzaki turned to L, his face a mask of polite inquiry as if something had just occurred to him. The expression was false. L knew without any other clues other than that the fact existed that _this_ was the very reason he had made it onto the suspect list in the first place. "That was also how your mother was killed, was it not?"

"Yes." He admitted. "She was stabbed one night when she was out with her friends." The taskforce gave him sympathetic looks, and Matsuda looked a word away from sobbing for L's loss. L ignored them, focusing instead on the poker-faced youth who chewed steadily at his nail.

"Interesting."

"Ryuzaki!" Yagami snapped, chiding the young man who shot the chief a surprised look with his sharp hazel eyes. "This is not appropriate."

"Ah, of course, do pardon my rudeness," Ryuzaki agreed, nodding his head to L who returned it.

"It's alright." He replied, even though it wasn't. He'd loved his mother more than Ryuzaki could envision, as she had been the one who'd chosen L, of all people, and taken him from his lonely life at the orphanage into a new world filled with love and happiness. That she'd been taken from him so viciously and so suddenly was something L had never forgiven. Whilst his mother's murderer had not been one of the first to die, he had most certainly _not_ been overlooked. Ryuzaki, it seemed, had long since noticed this too.

"When I first suspected you, I went to look at the profile of the man who killed your mother." He mentioned, apparently bored even though L knew he was anything but. Ryuzaki's eyes were trained solidly on him and taking in any and all reactions. L worked hard to keep himself neutral; was thankful for his already normally awkward actions. He'd been through too much to be average, and any potential slip could therefore be seen as his usual disposition.

"Unfortunately, I found that, while he had died since Kira started killing, it was not from a heart attack. He'd been stabbed himself in prison. He'd bled out slowly in the prison hospital."

"That doesn't help my percentage, does it?" L knew his personal percentage because Ryuzaki dutifully kept him updated. It was at eight percent at the moment.

R smiled, slowly and sharply. "No, it does not, Soucek-kun."

He knew that too. Had their positions been reversed, L would have found that such a piece of evidence, even though it fit into none of their data, would have proved especially damning.

\--

Of all the things to take R by surprise, shinigami had not been at the top of L's list. That wasn't to say _he_ hadn't been horrified by the sudden appearance of one in his bedroom soon after he'd confiscated the Death Note from a group of snivelling teenagers, but he'd not imagined the extreme reaction produced by the eternally blank-faced teenage detective.

He had scrambled away from his chair, only stopping when he hit L's legs, staring at the video as if a shinigami had crawled out of it. "I'm expected to accept that?" He breathed, bordering on hysterical. "That shinigami's exist?"

L put a hand on his shoulder, aiming for comforting but unsure what precise feeling he inspired in the boy when R jumped and strained his head to stare up at his faux-friend.

Then he broke away suddenly, standing up and collecting himself, as L suggested it may have been merely metaphorical. R nodded.

"Yes," he allowed. "Potentially." But a seed had implanted itself in that bright mind, L could tell, and despite his initial terrified reaction, R was quickly coming to accept that there may be more in this universe than he could have counted on. He had to, since he was the lead investigator of the Kira case. For Kira, _anything_ could be possible.

\--

L wondered how suspicious R was when L suggested he should go with Matsuda to Shibuya, but he brushed it off, since it was simply a more logical choice. The only other option that would make sense would be R going to Shibuya himself, but that was as unlikely as getting him to sleep some of those black bags away.

\--

Misa seemed so disgustingly young as she stood on his doorstep, smiling and bowing and holding out a notebook for him to inspect.

Markéta had squealed upon meeting her idol, whilst the boys blushed. L's father eyed her, but she was pretty and twenty, so he didn't question it.

And then there had been Rem, whom L immediately marked down as an enemy.

\--

The next screw up that Misa helped orchestrate was partially L's fault. He perhaps should have worded the script of the video better, but there was little more he could do to help Misa keep her identity hidden. He knew that Ryuzaki was going to pick up on the fact the second Kira had met the first, but he wasn't banking on Ryuzaki's immediately concluding that they had joined up.

"Of course they have." Ryuzaki said when L challenged it, replaying the tape L made Misa make. "He's saying that he doesn't want to meet Kira anymore, which means he's achieved his goal. But he wouldn't have just left it at a meeting. Even if Kira doesn't want to work with another person, since he's met the second Kira in person, both Kiras will have to be careful. With the power they have they could easily destroy each other." He sighed. "I'm a little saddened that common sense won over pride for Kira. Life would be simpler had they simply turned on each other."

L smirked. "It's a shame," he agreed, meaning _it's a shame her shinigami won't let me kill her_. "But at least this way we'll be able to finish the puzzle."

"That's true," Ryuzaki nodded, at the same time that Aizawa and Yagami sent them both burning glares.

"Really," Yagami huffed, his delicate sensibilities hurt again, whilst Aizawa fumed at their tactless words.

"This isn't a game." He snapped, something he found himself repeating with Ryuzaki, and was outraged to see he'd been forced to chide L as well. L apologised falsely, but Ryuzaki ignored him.

"Six percent." He told L pleasantly, offering him an iced doughnut which L took him up on. Ryuzaki himself was not indulging on the treats Watari brought them, as he never did, and instead poured himself another cup of tea. If there was anything to be said about Ryuzaki's list of foibles, his eating habits were not one of them. He ate at regular, predictable intervals, overlooked by his butler-bodyguard-manservant, which consisted largely of health foods and things which L detested.

"Six?" He said through a mouthful of doughnut which Ryuzaki found amusing if L was judging the twitch of his lips correctly, and was also an action which stepped on another of Yagami's endless little pet-peeves.

" _You_ wouldn't do something so thoughtless."

Ryuzaki was correct, but he also didn't know the mitigating circumstances which had forced L's hand. For a moment, L was thankful for Rem's threats which had made his actions slightly more unpredictable.

"Also, you would probably demand I go on TV again." Ryuzaki explained, but L called his bluff.

"I know you better than that, Ryuzaki. I know _R_ better than to believe he'd do that."

"L, you don't have to respond to his accusations." Yagami defended with Matsuda backing the chief up, but Ryuzaki was shrugging, doing that not-quite-smiling thing again.

"You're a genius." Ryuzaki said, surprising and honest. It made L blink once in a moment of disbelief.

"So are you."

"You should stop making unfounded indictments against L, Ryuzaki." Yagami cut across, apparently protective of his own, and it would have touched L deeply had it not been so abhorrently, sickeningly incorrect of the man to defend him.

"I just lowered his percentage." Ryuzaki pointed out, apparently a little bewildered by the adamant show of compassion Yagami displayed.

"But not to zero! There is too little evidence to arraign him, Ryuzaki, and you should stop grasping at straws out of a childish need to be correct."

"He's my best suspect," The detective whined petulantly, like he was being scolded by his father.

"That doesn't make him the right one! Not at six percent."

"I don't _want_ him to be Kira."

"What?" L cut across, and he wasn't the only one. His admission had cut Yagami's next tirade short, and the man gaped for a moment with an open mouth, before echoing L's question.

"What do you mean?"

Ryuzaki looked uncomfortable, which was saying something considering how the boy didn't _do_ silly things like embarrassment or pride. The expression was soon carefully swept off his face, but L had seen it, and the other members of the taskforce were probably bright enough to pick up on it as well.

"L-kun is my friend. My first one." He admitted, and it was the second time in too few minutes in which the mad detective had taken L by surprise.

"I missed you at university." He replied carefully, treading lightly so not to appear crass to the investigation team, and not to appear too false to R, who was obviously playing him like a harp.

"I'm wary about showing my face in public at the moment, L-kun, what with two Kiras lurking about. But as soon as we catch these men I'd be happy to return to class with you." It was at least a partially true admission. Ryuzaki was certainly scared about going outside, but he had no intention of playing nice with L after the case was closed. If, for some unknown, inconceivable reason, R _did_ win over Kira and found L out, there would be no more playtime. There would be no more lies. There would only be R the detective against L, Kira, who was the face of justice.

All gloves would be off then, and there would be no more tennis on campus.

\--

Misa showed up out of the blue to see him at the worst possible time she could. After the recent discussions and her campaign to get Kira accepted as a hero, Ryuzaki's attentions had not been split from her since they'd first discovered her.

Today had already been a fairly atypical one, considering. That Ryuzaki was out at all was a surprise. He had been waiting in broad daylight, brazenly, glaringly strange in the sun, nose stuck in a book (written, L noticed, in a language and an alphabet he didn't immediately recognise. He would later discover it was Devanagari, and the majority of Ryuzaki's books were in the same script).

"Hello, L-kun." He'd smiled, slipping the text into his pocket to address him completely. "Who is this?"

"Takada Kiyomi." She introduced, and Ryuzaki returned with his Ryuga alias, and L quickly switched to it as well.

"She seems nice." Ryuga said to L when she had left and he sat beside the detective. "Perhaps a little young."

"Everyone is young here."

"Why did you drop out?" Ryuga asked, seemingly genuinely perplexed. "It would have been simple enough for you to continue your degree here immediately. You were more than capable of doing the tests even upon direct arrival."

"I'm flattered by your faith in me, Ryuga." He said, dropping honorifics when no one was there to observe them. L wasn't Japanese, and despite his ancestry, it was clear Ryuga hadn't been raised in this environment either. He'd mentioned previously, in fact, that he'd spent some of his childhood in England. It therefore wasn't in either of their cultures, and between the bond they'd both formed, that of detective-and-suspect, of R-and-Kira, L felt no need to enforce feigned politeness.

"Was it due to your mother's passing?"

"Yes," he admitted, relining in his seat and tucking his feet under him, crossing his legs. He knew how strange they both looked, observed how they garnered a few curious eyes, but neither cared, absorbed as they were in each other.

"Oh," Ryuga then remembered. "If I die in the next few days, the taskforce will not hesitate to charge you as Kira."

Ah. That answered a question or two L had been itching to ask. Such as why was Ryuga out in public when only the day previous he'd been scared of the two Kiras finding out about him. Telling L so brashly of his actions once again protected him completely. It at least put a stop to any of L's immediate plans.

And then along came Misa.

"L-chan!" She chanted, and L accepted her arms around him with a cautious look to Ryuzaki. The detective didn't notice however, since his eyes were completely focused on Misa Amane.

"Who's your friend, L?" She asked, seemingly put off by the black smudges under Ryuzaki's eyes and the laser-like gaze he held her by.

"This is Ryuga. Forgive him his oddities."

"I forgive you yours," she winked, before offering her hand to the chestnut-haired young man. "I'm Misa-Misa."

Immediately, as if snapping out of a daze, Ryuzaki smiled brightly, and it almost made L recoil. Such an expression seemed strange upon the boy's face, making him seem impossibly younger, and distractingly attractive. L had never seen Ryuzaki smile in such a way, which just made it an expression which seemed further out of place on his face, but otherwise it was an outrage that R didn't share his grin more often. It actually made Misa blush.

"I'm Ryuga." He introduced himself again politely, and Misa's eyes flickered upwards once, but she was bright enough not to call his bluff. That was something, at least.

"It's wonderful to meet a friend of L's." She said, and he politely inclined his head in question. "And how do you know L-kun?"

"We met at University." Ryuga allowed, gesturing towards the building.

"That's great!"

"I have to say, Misa-Misa, it's an absolute honour to meet you." Ryuga continued, echoing the sentiment he gave to L upon their first talk. "I've been a huge fan of yours since March issue of 'Eighteen'."

"Really?" She smiled, broad and flushed and pleased with his attention. "That is so sweet, thank you!"

It was a lie, L knew. Ryuga had only recently started a minor investigation into Misa, mostly just a background check into why she was so outspokenly pro-Kira. Other than that and flipping through some magazines, he'd shown no intrigue in her as a character.

But then L noticed that the look in the teen's eye was true, and that he really _was_ interested in Misa. No doubt it was to do with Kira, now that she'd shown herself in public as an associate of L. Likely, she was now contending for one of the top spots on Ryuga's enemy list.

And then the eternally 5-year-old detective hadn't resisted touching Misa's behind in the middle of a crowd.

"Really, Ryuga." L had tutted, but the brown-haired boy had just smiled.

"Do excuse me." He confided in L, after he'd publically announced that he would solve the case for her. "She is your girlfriend, is she not? More suitable than Takada-san, at any rate."

"Really?" L had enquired, because he hadn't been worried so much about age as opposed to maturity when deciding he'd liked Takada better. That was if he was forced to choose between the two of them.

"Yes. She's cuter."

L huffed out a laugh, watching dispassionately as Misa was dragged away by her stern-faced manager. She was crying out silly words to him over her shoulder and L and Ryuga waved at her disappearing figure.

"Well, that was interesting." Ryuga said. "I need tea."

"Excuse me for a minute, Ryuga." He replied, gesturing in the other direction. "Let me use the bathroom."

He had no intentions for the bathroom, as much as it turned out that Ryuga had no intentions to head towards the café. The merry jingle that was Misa's ringtone rang out across the small distance they'd managed to get apart from each other, and when L turned back, Ryuga was flipping open the bright pink phone that was distinctly not his.

"Hello?" He stated dumbly, staring hard at L as he did so. Even on the unlikely chance that he hadn't seen the caller ID, L wasn't stupid enough to think Ryuga didn't know precisely who was on the other end.

"Hello." He replied, and before him, as it had with Misa around, Ryuga's face lit up completely.

"L-kun!" He said, as if it was a sweet little surprise. "How delightful to hear your voice. Do you not need the bathroom anymore?"

As L drew nearer, he was starting to hear the detective's voice in dual-tone, therefore it was unmistakable when the sweet expression slid of R's face in place of a sly one, and his tenor turned crafty.

"You couldn't have at least waited until I was out of earshot, could you, L? You ruined my surprise."

 --

R turned out to be unspeakably cruel.

It was perhaps nothing that L wouldn't have done had their positions been reversed, but when he watched Misa scream for death, all L could think of is that this was pitiless.

If anyone deserved to have his name written in his Death Note, R was now at the very top of the list.

\--

Ryuzaki seemed to be expecting it when L offered to turn himself up for containment four days after Misa's arrest.

"You're not killing criminals in your sleep, L." Ryuzaki stated with a roll of his eyes, and L admitted that much.

"But you don't know how Kira kills, Ryuzaki. It could be anything."

"No." The boy corrected him. "It could be many things, but not _anything_. Do stop this charade and use your _head_. Kira has to know the names and the faces of his victims, which means its more than just mind power alone which can kill someone. If it was, he should be able to point it at anyone and murder them. But he can't. So, there must be another process involved, something conscious and possibly even physical, and so I can very truly say that you are _not_ murdering criminals without your knowledge. Of that I am ninety-eight percent sure."

"Are you willing to take a two percent chance?"

And there was Ryuzaki's bluff. On something as huge as the Kira case, on something that has so little to go on they were relying on mad theories and potential existences of gods of death, even the tiniest of percentages became significant. R wasn't going to be completely happy until he had 100% for Kira, but that didn't mean he wouldn't settle for something above chance when it came to the actual prosecution.

That said, he still wasn't going to risk even a two percent chance.

When the door clanged shut behind L, the thought returned unbidden to his mind about how cruel the young detective R was. How cold his heart.

He was left alone in the cage, glad that the blindfold was taken away but lamenting that his arms had not been released, with only Ryuk's babbling to keep him company.

Occasionally R spoke through the speakers, and L made sure to look at the cameras directly when he replied. It wouldn't do to give R even the slightest suggestion he was lying. He was, of course, but it would mean the end of everything should the young, brilliant detective come to know that.

He gave up the Death Note six days after the start of his confinement, and with it went his memories.

Immediately after, mind clear but confused, he protested his treatment, wondering how a person that he'd believed to be as good and just as R could expect someone to suffer as he did within that cage.

\--

Chief Yagami, L's mentor, the man who'd put such confidence in him when he was fresh-faced and knee-deep in mourning, had pointed a gun at him and fired. An execution, he'd said. R had come to the conclusion L was Kira.

R was wrong.

But it had been a test, and not one L was happy taking part in. Ingenious though it had been, and something L thought that perhaps wasn't beyond his own ideals if he were pushed as far as the Kira case was obviously pushing the detective, but that did not mean he would forgive the boy so quickly.

The first time L punched someone was when he and Misa arrived at Hotel Okura, and R asked them not to lash out rashly.

"Like that," he'd nodded as his nose started to bleed and Watari glared daggers at L. "Perhaps that was deserved."

"It was." Misa snapped, and L nodded.

"You knew we weren't either of the Kiras for weeks!"

"No," R spoke, pressing a damp tissue to his nose. "We found evidence which lowered your percentages." He blinked, corrected himself, and continued. "It lowered _L's_ percentage."

"What?" Misa screeched, but she was held back by Mogi, hulking and looming and impossibly strong.

"You are the second Kira, Amane-kun."

"No, I'm _not_." She snarled, and he complied.

"Not now, no."

"Meaning?" L prompted as he'd learnt to do after knowing the detective so well these past few months.

"Meaning I have reason to suspect you've both passed on whatever powers you had, and are now feigning ignorance or, more likely, you genuinely don't remember. Which is fascinating."

"Yes, alright, Mr. Spock." L said snidely, watching as Misa was taken to another part of the suite to seethe in isolation before she managed to physically get her hands around R's throat. "That's ridiculous."

"No, it's not. Look at the evidence-"

"I'm biased, Ryuzaki. You will not convince me of this when I know I'm not Kira." And he wasn't. It was such a clear and ringing thought in his head it was almost a mantra. _I'm not Kira. I am not Kira._

"It's the only logical conclusion."

"Perhaps the truth is an illogical one."

"Which, in itself, is illogical." R snapped. "Your stubbornness to see the truth will be your downfall."

"Your blindness towards the truth will be yours. Since you're so focused on me, you're going to overlook the real Kira."

"I'm not blind towards the world," R seemed to be getting to the edge of his not inconsiderable patience, which L felt inexorably proud of himself for driving the detective to with such ease. "You're simply the best suspect."

"I'm the only suspect."

"Which usually means that you're the one responsible."

"Or, you're projecting what you want to see onto me."

"Really, L-kun, I am the world's greatest detective. If there is one thing I don't do, it's _create_ my own answers."

L scoffed lightly, and R's eyes narrowed. He looked like he wanted to do nothing better than return the punch L had given him only minutes earlier.

"Okay, okay," Matsuda cut across, running in between the two of them. He'd later pick up the habit of constantly coming in between their fights like a mother splitting apart warring siblings. "Calm down, both of you. We need to work together to solve this."

L looked to R, and R stared back. Slowly, L extended a thin hand which was taken by R's unfairly graceful, slender one.

"Truce?"

"Truce." R confirmed, wiping at his red nose after letting the hand drop.

\--

Yotsuba was nothing short of an overly dramatic fiasco which almost cost too many people their lives, but it served a purpose. L's memories had been restored and now Ryuzaki was staring at him, concerned.

"Are you alright, L?" He asked, and L nodded, returning the notebook to the boy who opened the pages to flick through.

"This is perfect." He breathed, and L politely agreed, whilst splitting his attention towards both the detective and the very subtle, very beautiful murder of Higuchi. It went off without a  hitch whilst doubling in its purpose by distracting R's attention enough for L to right his watch.

"Damn it." He heard the youth mutter, but all he could think of was that he had won. It was as if he had made the deal for the eyes in the way he could almost _see_ the clock winding down on R's life. No matter what had passed between them these last few weeks, no matter how beautifully they'd worked together, or how perfectly they'd fitted, this was not the world in which their friendship was allowed, and L was going to keep to his higher calling. Justice needed no friends. Justice answered to no one. Especially not a mere child playing at the role himself.

\--

Back at base, the clock was ticking.

"Here," Ryuzaki said one day, coming in with Watari wheeling in the biggest cake L had set eyes upon that wasn't crafted for a wedding. "Happy birthday, L!"

"It's not my birthday." He replied, confused, and the other members of the taskforce joined in the sentiment. Ryuzaki nodded, looking significantly at L, chasing the eye contact he demanded so readily.

"I recall. It's in two days, I am aware. But I felt the need to celebrate early. We can celebrate again on the day. There can never be too much cake."

"You hate cake."

"I know, but I suddenly feel the need to indulge in the finer things of life." Ryuzaki said, accepting a piece Watari cut and passing it over to L. "Many happy returns."

In the gesture were the words: _I don't know if I'm going to make it to your birthday, Kira. And I want you to know that I'm on to your game_.

R had not taken long to start staring at L suspiciously again after Higuchi had died, and L had gotten to know the boy so well in the past few months that he could clearly tell precisely how much the percentages rose every time R so much as glanced towards him.

"What's my percentage?" He asked later, out of earshot of the ex-policemen who so happy to have found so much substantial evidence all at once, and even more joyous to see there was cake to go along with it.

R smiled, apparently delighted to be asked, but it was a shuttered smile, distant and awful, and one L hadn't seen since June.

"Seventy-eight." He replied, grimacing as he licked away a chocolate smear from his fork. "Seventy-nine." He then said, when L tried to take the cake from him.

"Ryuzaki." He scolded, but the boy's smile dropped, and his eyes burned with loathing.

"You could have been better than this, L." He hissed. "Your mother would have _hated_ you."

No. He was wrong. L watched as Ryuzaki returned to his post, hunched over his desk and still attacking the cake like it was Kira himself. L's mother would not have hated him. She had been a strong-willed, independent woman with severe ideas of justice and truth and righteousness. If anything, Bĕla would have been _proud_ of him.

\--

On the 31st, Ryuzaki came in wearing a copy of L's clothes and a pale mask with a black wig.

"I'm Kira." He said, much to the disgust of the taskforce. It seemed Ryuzaki was beyond caring about their opinions now. "Happy Halloween."

Later, when he'd ditched the mask in favour of food and produced another delicious cake to celebrate the fact he _had_ reached L's birthday, he pushed a small box towards the man insistently.

"It's a present." He said when L prodded at it, wary of tricks. "It won't bite."

"I don't believe that." L tried, but Ryuzaki had stopped responding to his jokes the day they'd recovered the Death Note. L was not shocked by it.

Inside was a barrette with pink cupcake decoration; an obvious jab at L's sweet tooth.

"It's not so much for you, as it is for Misa." Ryuzaki then explained. "I wasn't sure what you'd appreciate, so I thought I'd try to give your relationship back. You're very careless with her."

"I never really wanted to date Misa." L said, and Ryuzaki nodded.

"I know, but a Kira needs his second Kira, doesn't he?"

L's look was dark and furious. "Ryuzaki, do not start this again."

"Or what? You'll write my name down in that little notebook? I thought that was the plan all along."

L closed his eyes and very deliberately counted to ten. He wished that Rem would speed up a little and get rid of the damn nuisance already. He was wearing L down rapidly, having upped the stakes the moment he realised he could die at any minute.

"I can see you wishing for my death, L." Ryuzaki noted, sipping at his tea. "Eight-seven percent."

\--

By the fifth of November, the percentage was at ninety-five.

The day had seemed normal, dull and dreary with increasingly hostile looks from the young detective, but otherwise it had been the usual. It involved more questions for the shinigami and more non-answers, which made L smile privately whilst R twitch with ire. It involved the usual tea rotation schedule which L had come to depend on, and the usual breaks for food. And then there had been the discussion about testing L's fake rule.

And then Rem realised just how truly brilliant L was.

And then Watari had sent R a distress signal.

\--

Overall, it hadn't been how L expected to defeat his greatest enemy.

Admittedly, initially he'd believed he'd be the one to write R's name down in his notebook, slowly and deliciously and drawn out with great pleasure. However, he liked this better, if only because now there would be absolutely no reason for the taskforce to assume L had been the one to take R's life.

Another unseen happening was how L found himself diving for R when he'd seen the body shake, drop his favourite china teacup, and then slip from his usual perch to the floor.

L caught the boy, who spent his precious last few seconds staring up towards the man who'd killed him, wide-eyed and somehow still triumphant.

 _Yes, you got me_ , L could admit. _You were right all along._

Silently, the life from R's eyes slipped away, and L carefully let his fingers draw them closed.

 "Is he dead?" Matsuda asked, voice shaking, and L made a show of hunching over the boy and drawing him close. "Oh, my god, Kira killed him!"

And the headless chickens panicked, wondering if they were next now that the most seemingly unreachable one of them all had fallen from his pedestal.

\--

L went to find the notebook, just to make sure his plan for Rem had worked. He excused himself, needing 'a moment alone', and Yagami had put his hand on his shoulder, nodding heavily and sympathetically.

L didn't need sympathy, since L was not saddened over the loss. What L did need, however, was closure, and that last final piece of the puzzle that was R: his ever-elusive name.

L found it when he flipped through the book which was lying uselessly in the ethereal sand which was once the Shinigami Rem. It was scrawled across an entire page in Rem's unsightly, spiky hand, and it was impossible to mistake.

The name in the book read _Light Yagami_. L's fingers glossed over it, suddenly sad, even if only for his mentor and friend and not for the dead detective. There and then, he resolved to do right by the chief. He had meant to take the book back into his own possession, but they had no real need for a third one. Let the chief have _his_ closure for the child he still wept over every February.

\--

"I know who he was." L said, placing the book carefully down in front of the taskforce. To the side, over one of the sofas, the slight and lifeless body of R - Light Yagami - had been gently placed, and he looked peaceful as if in sleep.

Immediately, whatever was left of Chief Yagami's composure crumbled.

"Oh, god." He breathed, his hand over his mouth and his head shaking. "No, please, god no." But it was too late for that. His son was dead, and there was nothing that could bring him back. Not that L _would_ , even if he did have the power to undo the curse of the Death Note. R was far too much of a risk for that.

Yagami had stood sharply and made his way over to the corpse, empty and seeming far too delicate as the man lifted the torso and hugged his child for the first time in seventeen years. When Light's mother had gone into labour, a problem with the phone line caused by a waywardly thrown ball had stopped the message reaching Yagami. He had been heading out on a case at the time, and had he received the message he would have never caught a dangerous kidnapper who had been terrorising the playgrounds and schools of that district.

This victory came back to haunt him, however, when only a year later the man broke free of his prison and snatched the child from his crib that very night. They had caught the bastard who'd done it, and eventually Kira had killed him for his crimes, but he'd already dumped the child and he would never say where. Eventually, after no one had found the baby, the Yagamis were forced to accept that they had lost their son forever.

Apparently, however, someone had found him, and he'd grown up to be more than anyone could have ever expected him to be.

"He was only eighteen!" Yagami cried into the room, clinging tightly to his newly-found boy, choking on the words as they tore from the back of his throat. "He was _eighteen_ years old."

And he looked it, for once. Usually, the blazing intelligence and obvious experience he'd gained from his job would shine out in R's eyes, making him look older than he truly was. But now he was nothing more than a child, broken and dead and gone.

But even in the face of such abject miserly, L could only play at sadness.

How could he be sad when the only real threat to his rule was dead? Because now he was unstoppable.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> I love writing for Death Note. It's so comfortable. I know the characters so well, and it just feels like coming home.  
> Also, this sort of genre is easy, in that they are the same person in two different bodies. It's scary how easily their fates could have been switched.


End file.
